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Ry Cooder/mambo Sinuendo


DudeAsInCool

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Released: 27th February 2003

Whither Ryland Cooder? The world's foremost slide guitarist, über-sessioneer and general guardian of music with authenticity has, for the last few years, subsumed his profile under projects that threw the spotlight onto musicians that the Western world had yet to 'discover'. The Buena Vista Social Club and Ali Farka Touré etc. all benefited from from Ry's commitment to educating, enlightening and entertaining. But where's the man that made Into The Purple Valley, Chicken Skin Music or Paris, Texas? Well, Mambo Sinuendo doesn't exactly redress the balance, but he's back in full electric form, and world music this ain't.

Cooder's not the first to attempt to conjure up his childhood years in the form of musical nostalgia. Many artists from Billy Joel to Neil Young have recalled their post-war years, emerging at the cusp of jazz's transformation into rock 'n' roll. Donald Fagen's Nightfly erred on the side of smooth sophistication with its evocation of 50s optimism, but Mambo Sinuendo remains closer to Tom Verlaine's underrated Warm And Cool, with retro-reverbed guitars and whammy bar whooziness.

Joining forces with Manuel Galban, former member of Cuba's premier vocal group of the 50s and 60s, Los Zafiros, Mambo... plays homage to the Perez Prado school of cha-cha rock 'n' roll (there's a delightfully cheesy version of Prado's ''Patricia'' here). Sinuous rhythms courtesy of old pal Jim Keltner, collide with girly choruses - all Duane Eddy holidaying in Havana. Remember the seedy Cuban club Fredo took Michael to in The Godfather Part 2? This is the soundtrack.

Galban's grit and twang (one track is even called ''Los Twangueros'' A result of Ry's inability to find a suitably descriptive term in Spanish!) is more than matched by Cooder's trademark growl, especially on "Monte A Dentro". It's a welcome return to a sound unheard since Get Rhythm and perfectly showcased in such a warm and humorously danceable setting. However it's the penultimate track, a slow extemporised version of the jazz standard ''Secret Love'' that really stands out here. Cooder's twitches, flourishes and tentative pickings all put one in mind of the only other man to approach the guitar with such a breadth of vision - Marc Ribot.

So he's still in love with Castro's Caribbean hideaway and this is an exquisite tropical jewel of an album. In these uncertain times he's a lucky man to have been granted a special dispensation (courtesy of Bill Clinton) to visit Cuba at all. But maybe the signs are here that he's turning his eyes homeward at last. Not before time...

Reviewer: Chris Jones

The BBC

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Too bad this artist (and the rest) got really famous in the "western" world with "buena vista social club" soundtrack. Chan Chan (track 1) is a masterpiece.

Edited by DudeAsInCool
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My favorite memory about Ry Cooder's music: In about 1973 I attended a concert by Foghat in Laurel, Mississippi, which is a small town. Being a small town, they didn't have any real large areas for a concert to be held, so this one was at the Civic Center which was intimate by concert standards. Before any bands started playing ( I think the warmup band was Spooky Tooth), they played music on the sound system and I suspect that it was newly installed, because it sounded great. They played the entire new Ry Cooder album, which was so good and sounded so great ( and I can't recall the album name now), that I was totally blown away. I've been a Ry guy ever since.

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Ry Cooder is also considered to be the major influence behind the Stone's Let It Bleed Album. Check out his other stuff.. he's a guitarists's guitarist...

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  • 6 months later...
too bad this artist (and the rest) got really famous in the "western" world with "buena vista social club" soundtrack. Chan Chan (track 1) is a masterpiece.

Huh? :o

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because people should have paid more attention to those artists a long time ago. It's too bad they got famous so late

Two of them died not long after that album was released

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because people should have paid more attention to those artists a long time ago. It's too bad they got famous so late Two of them died not long after that album was released

I thought you were referring to Ry Cooder, because that was what the thread was about... :lol:

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  • 6 months later...

I heard him play recently on John Hassel's new recording and thought I'd look up who else Ry has played with. Check out these guest appearances:

http://www.ryland-cooder.com/

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